Grammy Awards: boygenius' Julien Baker, DJ Paul, Deanie Parker among Memphis nominees
The 2024 Grammy nominations were announced Friday morning, and Memphis and Mid-South artists had a whole lot to celebrate as part of the 66th annual honors.
Indie rock super group boygenius — featuring Germantown-born, Bartlett-raised Julien Baker — was one of the year’s top nominees. Baker and boygenius will be vying for trophies in six categories, including Album of the Year for “The Record.” The group was also nominated for Record of the Year, Best Rock Performance, Best Rock Song, Best Alternative Music Performance and Best Alternative Music album.
Legendary Memphis soul label Stax Records was also honored as the archival "Written In Their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos" — a seven-CD set collection of 146 tracks putting the spotlight on Stax’s legendary roster of songwriters including Bettye Crutcher, Homer Banks, William Bell and many more — was nominated in two categories.
“Written In Their Soul” earned a nomination for Best Album Notes, with the honor going to its co-authors, Emmy- and Grammy-winning writer Robert Gordon and veteran Stax publicist and executive Deanie Parker. The Grammy nomination follows Parker's induction into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in October.
"Written In Their Soul" — which was nearly two decades in the making — was compiled by multiple Grammy-winning producer Cheryl Pawelski. She will be up for the Best Historical Album award, along with Gordon and Parker, and fellow producers Mason Williams and Michelle Smith. They will be facing stiff competition from the likes of Bob Dylan and Lou Reed, among others.
In the Blues Categories, Mississippi legend and past Grammy winner Bobby Rush will be up for Best Traditional Blues Album for “All of My Love for You.” He’ll be competing against fellow Mississippian Mr. Sipp for “The Soul Side of Sipp.”
In the Best contemporary Blues Album category, another Mississippian, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, will try and win his second Grammy with “Live in London," having won in the same category two years ago.
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Three 6 Mafia founder DJ Paul was nominated as one of the writers for this year’s Best Rap Song. DJ Paul — aka Paul Beauregard — is credited as one of the authors of “Scientists & Engineers,” a song by Killer Mike featuring Andre 3000, Future, & Eryn Allen Kane. The song will be up against tracks by Doja Cat, Lil Uzi Vert, Drake and 21 Savage, and Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice. “Scientists & Engineers” is also up in the Best Rap Performance category.
Memphis producer and engineer Matt Ross-Spang — already a two-time Grammy winner — will have the opportunity to collect several more trophies. He co-produced projects for the Blind Boys of Alabama — who are up for three awards including Best American Roots Performance, Best Americana Performance and Best Roots Gospel Album for their LP, “Echoes of the South” — and Old Crow Medicine Show’s “Jubilee,” nominated for Best Folk Album.
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Ross-Spang also co-engineered Jason Isbell’s “Weathervanes” LP, which is up for three awards: Best Americana Album, Best Americana Performance and Best American Roots Song.
Grammy ceremonies will take place Feb. 4 in Los Angeles.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Grammy Awards: boygenius' Julien Baker, DJ Paul among Memphis nominees
